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The sermon teaches that the heart is the source of the entire moral and spiritual life, making inward renewal more essential than external behavior modification. A healthy heart must be full of God, pure from sin, peaceful under pressure, and undivided in its allegiance to Christ. Prayer, Scripture, meditation, and communion with Christ are presented as means by which the Spirit enriches the heart. The result should be a generous and useful life that blesses others, while those with stony hearts are urged to seek God's regenerating mercy.
Theological center: Christian transformation begins with God's renewal of the heart, especially through Christ and the Holy Spirit, rather than mere external reform or human effort.
Applications: Guard the heart diligently · Seek a full heart in God · Pursue inner purity · Ask Christ for inner peace
Primary texts: Proverbs 4:23 · John 13:34 · Matthew 6:24
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23 IF I should vainly attempt to fashion my discourse after lofty models, I should this morning compare the human heart to the ancient city of Thebes, out of whose hundred gates multitudes of warriors were wont to march. As was the city, such were her armies, as was her inward strength, such were they who came forth out of her. I might then urge the necessity of keeping the heart, because it is the metropolis of our manhood, the citadel and armory of our humanity. Let the chief fortress surrender to the enemy and the occupation of the rest must be an easy task. Let the principal stronghold be possessed by evil and the whole land must be overrun thereby. Instead, however, of doing this, I shall attempt what possibly I may be able to perform by a humble metaphor and a simple figure, which will be easily understood. I shall endeavor to set forth the wise man’s doctrine that our life issues from the heart and thus I shall labor to show the absolute necessity of keeping the heart with all diligence. You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies from which the water which is to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of houses is kept. Now, the heart is the reservoir of man and our life is allowed to flow in its proper season. That life may flow through different pipes—the mouth, the hand, the eye—but still all the issues of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the great fountain and central reservoir, the heart. And hence there is no difficulty in showing the great necessity that exists for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipes must be tainted and corrupt. May the Holy Spirit now direct our meditations. Mere moralists very often forget the heart and deal exclusively with the lesser powers. Some of them say, “If a man’s life be wrong, it is better to alter the principles upon which his conduct is modeled—we had better adopt another scheme of living. Society must be remodeled so that man may have an opportunity for the display of virtues and less temptation to indulge in vice.” It is as if, when the reservoir was filled with poisonous or polluted fluid, some sage counselor should propose that all the piping had better be taken up and fresh pipes laid down so that the water might run through fresh channels. But who does not perceive that it would be all in vain—if the fountainhead were polluted—however good the channels. So in vain are the rules by which men hope to…